14 DAY TRIAL // Even with the rapid ascension of Blu-ray media and Blu-ray drives on today's market, consumers still keep interest in DVD burners, as they are more accessible and DVDs have already a large-enough data capacity for reliable and efficient data storage. Pioneer's latest DVD burner, the DVR-S17J, not only provides full DVD functions, but even has certain optimizations to the writing process by means of the PureRead and PowerRead proprietary Pioneer technologies. The burner can reach write speeds of up to 20X and boasts both technical and design optimizations.
The "PURE READ 2" function attempts to repair damaged disk sectors when dealing with dusty or scratched audio CDs (by re-reading them and possibly recovering them) so as to eliminate, as much as possible, the pops and crackles that may be heard in the final version of a ripped audio file. The reading of such damaged sectors is done by re-reading them and adjusting the reading parameters. This means that, according to a built-in algorithm, the drive will increase or decrease laser power and the angle of the laser beam. The information that is deemed closest to the original sector will be included in the final version of the ripped file.
The PowerRead function will enable the playback of a disk even after encountering unreadable data. Normally, a regular personal computer will immediately break off the playback of media files located on an optical disk when it is faced with seemingly unreadable sections. PowerRead will automatically skip to the next readable address and will perform this operation on BDAV and DVD video/VR formats.
These two functions work with any of the operating speeds attainable by the drive. More specifically, the burner may write at 20x for DVD±R, 12x for DVD±R DL/-RAM, 8x for DVD+RW, 6x for DVD-RW, 40x for CD-R and 32x for CD-RW. Read speeds are of 16x for DVD±R/-ROM, 13x for DVD±RW, 12x for DVD±R DL/-ROM DL/-RAM, 40x for CD-R/ROM and 32x for CD-RW.
A third important feature of Pioneer's DVR-S17J is, as previously mentioned, its design. The newly developed actuator and more energy-efficient spindle motor allow for more accurate recording. In addition, the drive is dustproof and makes use of Pioneer's Disc-Resonance Stabiliser technology, which prevents disk warping by controlling the airflow inside the drive when running at high rotary speeds.
The drive will have white (DVR-S17J-W), black (DVR-S17J-BK) and silver (DVR-S17J-SV) face plates and will become available in Japan later this week, for the average price of JPY 9,000 ($100). The drive includes support for the LabelFlash disc labeling technology from Yamaha and the product will come bundled with CyberLink's "PowerDVD v8," "PowerProducer v5," "PowerDirector v8" and "Power2Go v6 for Pure Read" software.
